Tag Archives: celery

I love gazpacho, especially in the summer. It’s super easy to make, and served cold, so it’s perfect for a hot day. It’s also a great way to get a bunch of veggies into your day! Traditionally gazpacho is made with pieces of bread included in the mixture, and I’ve seen gluten-free versions made with rice, however I don’t think you need it, and instead I added an avocado for some creamy richness. Most gazpachos are tomato based, and this one DOES have tomato included, but I used a yellow, and a green heirloom variety, so it stayed a nice green color. I also went heavy on the other veggies, so it really was vegetable based rather than tomato based.

A generous amount of basil and mint (I used A Lot – but season to taste)

Some oregano, thyme, and cilantro (season to taste)

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tbsp lime juice

salt, pepper

After lightly prepping the ingredients, the rest couldn’t be any simpler! Add all ingredients to a blender, and blend!

Please note, if you don’t have a high powered blender like a Ninja Kitchen Systemor a Vitamix, you might have too chop things smaller. Chances are you will have to blend a little anyway to make room as you go.

Blend until everything is liquefied and well combined. Chill and serve.

With Thanksgiving coming quick, I’m sure you don’t want a crazy complicated dinner while also trying to get ready for the holiday. This one is super-duper easy. It happened on a recent busy night, when I just didn’t really feel like cooking crazy things. That’s a lot of nights. I’m sure some of you busy folks out there have the same feeling, and it scares you away from cooking….well this one is for you. Next time you’re considering Chinese take out, make this instead.

Ingredients:

1.5 lb chicken, cut into chunks

1/3 head broccoli, chopped to semi-small florets

1 Spanish or sweet onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

A lot of black pepper

salt

Paprika

Dash of nutmeg

3-5 tablespoons coconut aminos

Duck fat (For Sauteing, you can also use lard, tallow, coconut oil, bacon grease, or any other healthy fat)

Heat one or two tablespoons of duck fat over medium heat.

Add the vegetables, seasoning, and coconut aminos, stir, and saute covered (Stirring occasionally) until the vegetables are almost cooked.

Add the chicken, cover, and stir occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through.

Fairly often, one of my flavor cravings is indian food. So I decided to make something with a bit of spice and indian flair, my way. It’s not a particular dish, but the heat build up reminds me of a clove heavy vindaloo, which is one of my favorite dishes. I like cloves, which is why I added more than normal, but not everyone does, so you may want to cut back a little if you’re not sure. The heat definitely builds on this one – so keep that in mind if you are sensitive to spicy food.

I didn’t measure anything – so any spices in bold, I used GENEROUS amounts of. I apologize in advance if some of the pictures aren’t as nice as usual…I usually don’t photograph the cooking process (because I’m busy focusing on cooking), and didn’t have special lights to set up over the kitchen while dodging tomato splatter ha!

Ingredients:

1 lb Chicken Breast

3 large shallots

3 large cloves of garlic

2 yams or sweet potatoes – peeled and cubed

1 28 oz can Cento Brand crushed tomato

1 can Trader Joe’s light coconut milk

2-3 cups sliced okra

2 stalks celery

2-3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

4 whole allspice and cloves – smashed

Cardamom

Red cayenne pepper

Ginger

Hungarian paprika

Coriander

Tumeric

Cumin

Cinnamon

Salt

Put all spices in a ziplock with chicken and rub around as a dry rub – let marinate for 1-2 hours

Cut up and cube 2 yams or sweet potatoes and chop 3 large cloves of garlic and 3 large shallots

Heat 2 tablespoons duck fat.

Using a kitchen scissors cut the chicken I to cubes or chunks and cook for a minute or two before adding the garlic and onion. Then throw them in and stir.

After a minute add the sweet potato and stir.

After a few minutes add the canned crushed tomato (28oz Cento brand) and coconut milk (Trader Joe’s) and stir. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice

Add more of the spices you used earlier and 2 bay leaves, cover and let simmer. After it starts simmering hard, turn the heat down to medium – add a little lime juice.

So getting more and more into the paleo lifestyle, it’s not surprising that I finally decided to make a nutrient rich bone broth. I decided on the slow cooker method, because it’s easy, and I can forget about it for a day (literally). I started off looking at the recipe from Nom Nom Paleo, and pretty much followed it, with a few adjustments due to taste, and what I had on hand.

Chop up the onion, shallot, carrots, and celery and throw into the bottom of the crock pot. I cut them pretty large, because it didn’t matter, and I’m lazy when I can be. Peel and slice the ginger root, and throw that in too. Then put the bay leaves in and put the bones on top. sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pour the apple cider vinegar and coconut aminos over the bones. Add water until you pretty much cover the bones – but make sure you leave a little room (like 1-2″) at the top of the crock pot. I think I used 6-8 cups.

Then let it cook on low for 24 hours or more.

I left it going for 48 hours. It seriously made my kitchen smell of corned beef and cabbage….I don’t know why….but I’m down with that.

after it was done I took out all the solids (I saved them to eat, even though slow cooking pretty much sucks all their flavor out)

and ran it through a strainer.

There were still some floaty things, so i folded up a cheesecloth in the strainer, and ran it through again.

The fat gave it a pretty pattern on top.

I drank a cup while it was still hot, and put the rest in the refrigerator. It was thick, dark, rich, meaty, and earthy. After it cooled, I removed the solid fat from the top. Unfortunately, there must have not been enough gelatin in the bones, or cartilage, because it didn’t get “jelly” like, and stayed liquid. Next time maybe I’ll add chicken feet or look for knuckle bones. Overall, not a bad first attempt – but next time I hope to get it to its full gelatinous potential!

Monday my refrigerator was pretty bare, so dinner was simple but fun. I’ll try and include more posts like this, instead of sticking only to full blown “recipes” – since I realize we are all busy people, and simple dinner ideas are a good thing to have! With that being said, the George Foreman grill is seriously a great tool for quick dinners, and along with my electric griddle and crock pot, an invaluable gadget in my kitchen arsenal.

Anyway, I thawed a package of tuna steaks that I got from Trader Joe’s in the refrigerator overnight. While the grill heated up I quickly marinated them in a zip-lock with a combination of random but intuitive things, giving them a nice sweet and savory touch of flavors.

coconut aminos

ginger powder

cayenne pepper

salt

black pepper

rosemary

thyme

coconut milk (Trader Joe’s Light)

stone ground mustard

I stuck them on the grill until they were cooked through. If you like, you can even put some additional mustard on after it’s done. For side dishes, I just did some cucumber salad (an easy mixture of cucumber, celery, and onion – with coconut aminos, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar) and some ginger seaweed sauerkraut stuff I got at Wild By Nature up the block. I love fermented foods.

Here is a nice crock pot recipe I made the other day. I always like trying to add cocoa powder into savory dishes, and I love the combination of chocolate and cayenne pepper. I was going to use a brisket, but I was sent a shoulder london broil with my meat order – so I used that instead. Crock pot beef is wonderful, because you don’t even need a knife, it just falls onto your fork, ready to be eaten.

Ingredients:

1-2 lb brisket or shoulder London broil

1 onion quartered

3 cloves garlic – largely chopped

2 large carrots

3 stalks celery

1/4 cup dried unsweetened un-sulfered cherries

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1/2 cup coconut milk

2-3 tablespoons cayenne [depending on how spicy you like it]

1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons ginger powder

Fresh Basil ripped to pieces

Place the onions and some carrots on the bottom of the crock pot, then place the meat in. On top of the meat, add the cocoa powder and cayenne pepper. Add the rest of the vegetables, seasoning, and liquids. Cook in the crock pot on low for 8 -10 hours.

Instead of putting potatoes in the slow cooker with the rest of the dish, I decided to get some blue potatoes [ If regular potatoes are an issue for you, you can use another root veggie, or sweet potato] from the farm stand, and roast them for a side. Wash the potatoes, and remove any eyes. Cut slits in the potatoes, all along the length, but not all the way through. put some duck fat over each potato, so it seeps into the slits. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and bake for 40-60 minutes until tender.

Here is a little something I pulled together last night. I wanted to keep it fairly simple. Now I normally don’t add any sweeteners to my recipes – but I added a tablespoon of raw honey to this one. It’s still Paleo compliant, but it’s not Whole Life Challenge compliant because of that. For the fish, I have some things to tweak next time, mainly I think I would put the sauce on after the fish is on the plate – just because the fish gives off a lot of liquid, and waters it down. You can experiment with it. I thought it was good enough to post, and my boyfriend was like “That was really good”…so maybe I’m just being overly critical.

I actually wanted to highlight the salad today. It wasn’t crazy involved, but most of the ingredients came from the local farm stand, which is a practice I want everyone to start trying to implement. Eating seasonally is not only important for nutrition and budget, as the fresher ingredients are often cheaper and more nutrient dense in season, but it’s important to support your local farmers and farm stands, because generally the food you find there is way fresher, and way better than anything you will find in your local big chain supermarket.

I bought some beautiful arugula, red leaf lettuce, and cucumbers from the farm stand. The shallot also came from a trip there earlier in the week. The only things I added that did not come from there, was the tomatoes, some celery, and some fermented ginger carrot.

Arugula

Red Leaf Lettuce

Shallot

Cucumber

Tomato

Celery

Fermented Ginger Carrots

Dressing – Olive Oil, Coconut Aminos, Lime Juice

It was beautiful and fresh, and the arugula had a wonderful full flavor spice to it that really complimented the light and refreshing taste of everything else! I think in the past I have only had baby arugula, which I love, but I didn’t realize how wonderfully strong the flavor is when full-grown!

So to go with it, I baked some Cod Filets. To make the sauce, I placed a glass bowl over a sauce pan, and set the stove to Hi. I added a tablespoon each of duck fat and raw honey, then added a few good shakes of hot sauce. Next time I am going to put the sauce on after baking, because as you can see by the picture, the liquid from the fish seriously diluted it. It was subtle and nice though. I topped with half an avocado for some added good fats.